Britain’s most decorated athlete Mo Farah is targeting a new national record and a podium place when he returns to the London Marathon on Sunday.
Farah finished eighth in 2014 – his first and only race over 26.2 miles – but is hoping that his switch to focusing solely on marathon distance, having hung up his track spikes last year, will pay dividends.
“The aim is to go after the British record for sure, but at the same time since 2014 I’ve learned more and understand a lot more. We’ll see what happens,” said the 35-year-old.
“This is the biggest race and there’s really only one way to run London, so if the guys are going out at world-record pace then why not go with them?
“A win would be amazing but obviously this is going to be different. Every race I go into, I go into it to fight and go for the podium. Anything can happen in the marathon.”
Farah will have to improve his 2014 time of 2:08:21 by more than a minute to break the British record this weekend, while his rivals for a podium place include two-time winner Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, runner-up last year.
He is being trained by Gary Lough, husband and former coach of women’s world record holder Paula Radcliffe, as he looks to reproduce his all-conquering 5,000m and 10,000m form on the capital’s roads.
“Gary and I work really well together. I’m not going to give away anything massive, but he’s given me things to do that I’ve never done before,” said Farah.
“When I prepared in 2014, I did so knowing I wanted to continue running on the track, so I didn’t want to lose my speed. But this year has been very different, I have been running more than 120 miles some weeks and have built a good base.”
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